Trust vs. Faith

This morning my boys stood to eat their cereal. Out of Dollar Tree bowls. With plastic spoons. There aren’t enough places to sit and clothes are piled high because no one has a dresser. And yet everything seems right with the world.

This is the fifth time we’ve moved in less than two years. The fifth move since we sold all of our stuff. The fifth house filled with other people’s generosity. You’d think that would lead to a life of awkwardness sprinkled with a heavy dusting of indebtedness but it’s not the case.

What we’ve found in living a life with very little stuff is freedom, flexibility, and faith.

This last move is a little unique, though. Instead of moving into someone else’s house full of their things, we’ve moved back into our house. I say it’s our house but that’s only a half truth. It belongs to Jeremy’s parents and we have no real ownership of it except in our hearts.

We spent a few good years in this house, have some of our best memories here. We found God, each other, community, and house church in these 1200 sq feet.

It’s far from perfect with little space and one bathroom. It’s outdated, the linoleum in the kitchen is pretty awful and there’s a serious lack of closets. But we love it so much.

When we realized the house would be available we didn’t hesitate, despite the fact that we would need to fill it with 100% of borrowed goods. We had little more to offer the space than suitcases and Legos but that wasn’t about to stop us.

On our first night in the house we had almost everything we need. Beds, sheets, a few dishes, a couch to sit on, a TV to watch Men in Black. And the rest will filter in throughout the week.

These last couple of years have developed in me a rock solid foundation of trust. I’d say faith, but sometimes I think I’m still a bit shaky there. Faith is big and wide and has lots of hard to answer questions. But trust? Trust is simple.

I don’t have all the answers. If I’m being honest, I’m not even seeking them these days. I suppose it’s because I’ve found a contentedness in the simple things. Family, friends, laughter, sunsets. Cheese.

And there’s something about trusting God for the little things that makes me trust in the bigger things, the things I might never fully understand. In the meantime I’m not going to work myself into a tizzy trying to right all the wrongs, answer all the questions.

I’d rather sip coffee out of my borrowed mug, sit on the deck, and laugh with friends.

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Wonderfully heartfelt. Beautiful picture of God’s provision and your own spiritual growth.
And I would ask you to consider – *is* trust different than faith? I would argue that it is not. When the Bible speaks of our faith should be child-like . . . what does that look like? Child-like faith is “greater” than adult faith because children TRUST more. I believe the word “faith” is all dressed up in religiosity to seem like something way *more*, when it isn’t. I was at a ladies thing that was extolling the profound faith of Mary, mother of Jesus. After I considered it, I came to the belief that profound faith is simple faith. Simple trust. We calculate her to have been very very young. Practically a child, when she was told she would be the mother of the Messiah. Not too unlike her uncle Zachariah was told he too would have a medical child. Both of them asked how. Zachariah was punished for his lack of faith and Mary wasn’t. Why? Most likely because of that simple trust. When all the world and it’s logic came into the wizened and knowledgable Zack, and all the very true and factual reasons why his wife couldn’t have a baby – Zack said “can’t happen”. Mary too, had all the facts and logic, but she then said “can”. Why? Because she trusted what she was told. Like children can do if they trust you. They may know your house doesn’t have a chimney, but if the child trusts you, and you tell them Santa will come down the chimney to deliver presents, they’ll put their faith in you and all of reality will bend to that faith. Because they trust you. They don’t know how physics will bend, but they know it will. Mary didn’t know how this was all going to play out – but she trusted the one who told her it would, all the rest of the stuff was His concern. That is profound faith.
You are a woman of profound faith.Michelle Pfftt recently posted..Happy Menarche!

I think “faith” and “trust” are two different concepts entirely. Do you remember that game when you would fall backward and someone was supposed to catch you? If you are willing to give over the well-being of your behind to somebody that’s “trust.” If you know that God exists not just because your parents told you or the church told you or some other authority figure told you, but because you are stepping out on a limb and taking a flying leap into His arms, that is “faith.” The problem is sometimes when we have one and not the other.